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How to Make a Grand a Year without Even Trying

by Tony Chung on June 5, 2008

In my last post, I talked about keeping track of your net worth by keeping a spreadsheet with a running tally of your various incomes every month. After doing this a few days ago, I noticed a few columns on the spreadsheet that curiously racked up some significant figures annually. What’s interesting about these sources of income is that I don’t really… do much work to get the money every month. I want to share these things with you. Here are just a few ways you can make a grand or two a year without really even trying:

Certificate of Deposits (CDs)

Placing a portion of your money in a CD account basically guarantees you a chunk of free cash every month. Seriously. The only catch is that you can’t touch that money until the CD matures, so just put a few grand that you won’t use for a few years. You can choose how long you want your money to remain in the CD (usually longer term = higher rate = more $$ made). A term can be anywhere from 3 months to 4 years depending on the bank. There’s also a minimum amount required.

Google Ads on your website

If you have a blog (or any website for that matter), consider throwing on some Google Ads for free cash every month. All you have to do is place the code on your site and keep the site relatively updated with fresh content.Bonus: make more money by focusing your site on a specific topic.
Double bonus: make the ads visibly obvious but NOT annoying.

Get really good at something you enjoy doing and then teach it

I know what you’re thinking… Tony, if I’m spending time teaching, then it’s work! Yes true… but I emphasize the word “enjoy” in the above statement. Seriously, if you enjoy yoga and are really good at it, devoting a few hours per week to teaching it is not really work… because you would’ve spent that time doing yoga anyway! The only difference is you’re getting paid to do it. I teach guitar two hours a week and make $200-$300 USD a month. That amounts to about 8-12 hours of work a month (including curriculum prep time) at about $25 an hour. Not bad if you ask me…

Adding up the money I make from these three activities amounts to anywhere from a few hundred to a few grand annually… and honestly, the work doesn’t justify the cash IMO. 😉 So get crackin’!!

This is something I have been thinking about a lot since I'm going to stop working in about 4 months while I go to graduate school. I'd still like a source of income and if possible but my savings to work.

I looked into CDs, but they have a fairly low interest rate (~3%) and are of course, low risk. What are some (slightly) higher risk options that give a higher rate of return?

yea CD rates right now are pretty weak, a year ago they were close to 5%. you can look into mutual funds (basically a group of stocks from a particular industry handpicked by a broker) or take the riskier route and simply invest in stocks at your own discretion.